Usain Bolt, the 8-time Olympic gold medalist and 11-time world champion, has teamed up with Step App to take fitness and exercise a notch higher by incorporating Web3 and the metaverse.
As a FitFi platform building a gamified metaverse for the fitness economy, Step App intends to generate a healthier world through Web3. Therefore, the platform’s choice of Bolt as its core brand ambassador is intended to attain this objective.
Bolt stated:
“Exercise has always been, and still is, a massive part of my life. When I learned what the team at Step App was building, I was instantly inspired and wanted to be part of this incredibly important global movement.”
Since the blockchain economy has expanded beyond finance to incorporate play elements, fitness, and lifestyle, Step App transforms daily exercise activities like jogging or walking the dog into competitions or social activities with friends and strangers.
As a result, this encourages people to earn by exercising, leading to economic freedom. Bolt pointed out:
“I’ve said in the past that we need to aspire to inspire, and through Step App, I would love to inspire as many people as possible to live a healthier and happier life. We are just getting started.”
Launching the gamified metaverse will give at least 20 million pre-signed users the chance to earn, play, socialize, and exercise.
Krill Volgin, the CEO of Step App, stated:
“Our mandate is to inspire people to exercise daily, so they feel better physically & mentally, and feel we will achieve this by incentivizing their exercise by paying them in crypto.”
Users will earn KCAL tokens after completing each fitness step, enabling them to unlock more economic opportunities. Volgin added:
“We are not just building an industry-leading Web3 platform, but more importantly championing a global movement to get millions of people around the world to become healthier.”
Crypto rewards seem to be enticing people to hit the gym, according to a recent survey by fitness platform FitRated.
Thailand’s crypto regulation is under scrutiny as the government plans to amend digital asset rules.
The country’s regulators said that action needs to be put into place as a recent cryptocurrency selloff saddled retail investors with large losses and toppled several companies.
Existing digital-asset regulations in Thailand were introduced in 2018; however, they require amendment from the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), said Secretary-General Ruenvadee Suwanmongkol.
Suwanmongkol added that stricter qualifications for managing and licensing crypto custodians would be part of the amendment proposal. Specific details are yet to be released.
“The extreme volatility of digital-asset prices has spurred the urgent need for improved supervision,” Ruenvadee said in an interview. “Our main focus will be to provide more protection for small investors, some of whom are putting most of their savings into these assets.”
The regulatory body was motivated to take action after Zipmex (Thailand) Ltd., one of the country’s licensed cryptocurrency exchanges, and its regional parent halted withdrawals this week, according to Bloomberg.
The company faces a liquidity crunch similar to the bankruptcy of Celsius Network Ltd. and Three Arrows Capital.
According to Bloomberg, Chief Executive Officer Akalarp Yimwilai said Wednesday that Zipmex (Thailand) is talking with potential investors to raise funds for a “bailout.” On its Facebook page on Thursday, the company announced that it has $48 million of exposure to Babel and $5 million with Celsius.
Zipmex Thailand’s woes are an individual case stemming from problems at a related business, Ruenvadee said.
Another crypto woe that has led to the tightening of regulations is a case that involved “artificial trading volume” by Thailand’s largest crypto exchange, Bitkub Online Co., and its CEO Sakolkorn Sakavee, who was later fined.
Bitkub claims it still has normal operations and allows withdrawals and deposits of all assets under its policies.
According to Thai SEC data, trading of cryptocurrencies in June on Thailand’s licensed exchanges fell to the lowest since January 2021 as it slumped to 58 billion baht ($1.6 billion).
The data also showed that the total number of active trading accounts fell to 305,000 in June, from 556,000 in May.
Thailand’s crypto regulation is as volatile as the crypto industry.
While in April, a report from Reutersstated Thailand’s market regulator had announced that the use of digit assets to pay for goods and services would be banned from April 1.
Blockchain.News reported that the new rule was issued following an earlier discussion between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Bank of Thailand (BOT). The SEC said the debate stated the need to regulate such activity by digital asset business operators as it could undermine and impact Thailand’s financial stability and the overall economy.
The report added that the SEC also announced that the new rules must be complied with by businesses that provide such crypto services within 30 days from the effective date.
To eliminate overreliance on a single type of stablecoin, Singapore-based crypto exchange Bit.com has rolled out USD perpetual trading, starting with BTC/USD and ETH/USD pairs.
Therefore, the ETH/USD and BTC/USD perpetual products will be accessible to Unified Margin Mode (UM) users without expiry. Furthermore, the users will settle them using USD since they will not be required to hold the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin in their accounts.
This approach became a reality following the launch of the Unified Margin system in September 2021 because traders were allowed to use all assets in their accounts as collateral when trading any product. As a result, it eradicated the urge for traders to hold USDC.
By establishing the USD perpetual products, Bit.com intends to reduce confusion about different types of stablecoins. They will also act as a stepping stone toward launching USD options, a complex crypto derivative product meant to enhance the security of direct USD settlement.
The crypto exchange plans to incorporate more stablecoins into its USD basket. Additionally, it eyes more fiat-backed stablecoins for diversification purposes.
Despite USDC’s market capitalization trailing that of Tether (USDT) by approximately $10.9 billion, its value has surged by more than $16 billion during the present bear market.
This can be attributed to the fact that Circle, the USDC issuer, regularly supplies transparency reports. The latest shows that the stablecoin is adequately collateralized with $55.7 billion held in short-term cash and U.S. treasuries.
On the other hand, USDT recorded outflows, suggesting general apprehension among holders.
USDT’s market cap stood at $65.8 billion, whereas that of USDC sat at $54.9 billion during intraday trading, according to CoinMarketCap.
To meet crypto users’ tastes, needs, and preferences, Bit.com has diversified different options. For instance, the exchange launched a new savings product and USDT margined futures to drive financial product innovation, Blockchain.News reported.
Epic Games, Inc., creator of Metaverse battle royale game Fortnite, says it would not ban NFTs like Minecraft.
“Developers should be free to decide how to build their games, and you are free to decide whether to play them. I believe stores and operating system makers shouldn’t interfere by forcing their views onto others. We definitely won’t,” Tim Sweeney responded to netizens’ messages on his official Twitter.
On July 20th, Mojang Studios, The Sandbox video game Minecraft developer, stated that it will not support NFT integration with Minecraft, citing that the speculative pricing and investment mentality of NFTs NFT-related scams violate the principles of the game.
Tim Sweeney mentioned that encryption is complex. Good and bad, everyone should make their own decision.
Epic Games doesn’t necessarily support cryptocurrencies or NFTs, but the CEO said the company doesn’t intend to ban NFTs like Minecraft but instead leaves the choice to gamers.
“A store could choose to make no such judgments and host anything that’s legal, or choose to draw the line at mainstream acceptable norms as we do, or accept only games that conform to the owner’s personal beliefs,” he said.
When Steam banned NFT and blockchain technology on October 21, the Epic Games Store said it would not follow suit and would continue to support NFT Games.
Epic Games, Inc. is an American video game and software developer and publisher based in Cary, North Carolina. Tim Sweeney founded the company in 1991.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Thursday listed nine cryptocurrencies that it considers as securities. The regulator named the nine crypto assets in its first insider-trading case, where it said the nine digital tokens are “securities”.
On Thursday, the SEC, through coordination with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), arrested and charged former Coinbase product manager Ishan Wahi, his brother Nikhil Wahi, and a friend Sameer Ramani on allegations of insider trading and wire fraud.
SEC filed a complaint alleging that the former Coinbase employee engaged in insider trading by giving his brother and friend tips on which tokens the exchange planned to list shortly. According to the complaint, Wahi had advanced knowledge of which crypto assets were about to be listed on the Coinbase platform. He, therefore, shared such information with his brother and friend so they could purchase the coins ahead of the listings. The complaints disclosed that Nikhil Wahi and Ramani made over $1.1 million on trades with nonpublic information.
Along that case, the SEC also explicitly mentioned nine crypto assets listed as securities. The assets are:
· Amp (AMP)
· Rally (RLY)
· DerivaDAO (DDX)
· XYO (XYO)
· Rari Governance Token (RGT)
· LCX (LCX)
· Power Ledger (POWR)
· DFX Finance (DFX), a
· and Kromatika (KROM).
The agency named all the tokens in connection with the alleged insider trading.
In the past, the SEC had identified cryptocurrencies as securities in enforcement actions or settlements with the provider.
But Thursday’s complaint is the first time the agency identified several crypto coins as securities and the exchange listing the so-called securities.
As a result, Coinbase and other intermediaries may be in trouble for legal liabilities. While the SEC has gone after the rogue Coinbase employee, it has also asked a federal judge to consider whether the nine crypto assets are tied to allegations of unregistered securities.
If the court accepts SEC’s promise, then the SEC will bring enforcement actions against Coinbase for being an unregistered securities broker/exchange, as well as open up legal liabilities for crypto issuers behind the coins and platforms that facilitate the trading of such assets.
Meanwhile, Coinbase has responded to the SEC filing, stating that regulations in the US are not keeping up with the digital world and therefore need fixing.
Coinbase submitted a petition on Thursday to the SEC, stating that the regulator should develop rules that describe “digital asset securities.”
The exchange further said that if the SEC is keen to encourage crypto adoption, it should provide sensible regulation. Without that, the US won’t reap the rewards associated with cryptocurrencies. And the U.S. may not be able to catch up with other jurisdictions, Coinbase stated.
The above case is one of few examples from the SEC that mentioned specific cryptocurrencies as securities but has offered little clarity over several years.
Early last year, the SEC sued Ripple for selling XRP tokens as unregistered securities to investors in the US and worldwide. Thursday’s complaint shows that the regulator views most cryptocurrencies as securities.
The crypto industry has witnessed a massive downturn, losing about $2 trillion in value since hitting a peak in November.
Several crypto exchanges are struggling following the Federal Reserve’s increase in interest rates to curb inflation earlier this year.
Since investors have begun to shun risky assets, including cryptocurrencies, major crypto companies such as Coinbase have announced layoffs of many employees. Coinbase had massively increased in size during the bull market.
Crypto companies in total have announced more than 1,800 job cuts since early June, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). The job cuts have created an atmosphere of uncertainty in the formerly growing crypto industry.
Some of the top companies that have executed layoffs in recent months are as follows:
Gemini
On June 2, Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss said through a blog post that the crypto exchange was laying off approximately 10% of its workforce.
Crypto.com
On June 10, Kris Marszalek, CEO of Crypto.com, said about 5% of its workforce would be part of the “targeted reductions”, or 260 jobs would be removed.
During the crypto bull market, Crypto.com spent $700 million to put its name on the Los Angeles Lakers’ arena. The company also ran a Super Bowl ad featuring LeBron James.
BlockFi
On June 13, crypto trading and lending platform BlockFi said that it would reduce its staff members by 20%. The company cited the dramatic shift in the macroeconomic environment as the reason for the layoffs.
According to CEO Zac Prince’s tweet thread announcing the layoffs, BlockFi had grown to over 850 in employees number in mid-June from about 150 at the end of 2020.
BlockFi has struck a deal with crypto exchange FTX to sustain its business. The deal includes a $400 million credit line and an option to be acquired for as much as $240 million.
Coinbase
On June 14, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase announced that it is slashing its workforce by 1,100 employees, or about 18% of its staff. According to the WSJ, Coinbase is one of the single growth firms of the crypto boom. Chief Executive Brian Armstrong said, “our employee costs are too high to effectively manage this uncertain market.”
Shares of Coinbase have plunged more than 71% this year, according to FactSet data.
Compass Mining
On July 7, Compass Mining said via a blog post that 15% of its workforce would get laid off. The company also said announced that compensation for executives would be reduced.
According to the bitcoin mining company, their business “grew too quickly” but had to cut spending now due to uncertain market conditions.
OpenSea
On July 14, nonfungible tokens (NFT) marketplace OpenSea announced that it is cutting a fifth of its staff. It cited the crash in cryptocurrency prices as the reason behind employee layoffs. According to OpenSea, it now has 230 employees, suggesting about 57 people were laid off.
Blockchain.com
On July 21, cryptocurrency exchange Blockchain.com announced that it is laying off one-quarter of its workforce. Collapsed crypto hedge-fund manager Three Arrows Capital had taken credits of more than $300 million from this trading platform.
The crypto industry has witnessed a massive downturn, losing about $2 trillion in value since hitting a peak in November.
Several crypto exchanges are struggling following the Federal Reserve’s increase in interest rates to curb inflation earlier this year.
Since investors have begun to shun risky assets, including cryptocurrencies, major crypto companies such as Coinbase have announced layoffs of many employees. Coinbase had massively increased in size during the bull market.
Crypto companies in total have announced more than 1,800 job cuts since early June, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). The job cuts have created an atmosphere of uncertainty in the formerly growing crypto industry.
Some of the top companies that have executed layoffs in recent months, including:
Gemini
On June 2, Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss said through a blog post that the crypto exchange was laying off approximately 10% of its workforce.
Crypto.com
On June 10, Kris Marszalek, CEO of Crypto.com, said about 5% of its workforce would be part of the “targeted reductions”, or 260 jobs would be removed.
During the crypto bull market, Crypto.com spent $700 million to put its name on the Los Angeles Lakers’ arena. The company also ran a Super Bowl ad featuring LeBron James.
Coinbase
On June 14, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase announced that it is slashing its workforce by 1,100 employees, or about 18% of its staff. According to the WSJ, Coinbase is one of the single growth firms of the crypto boom. Chief Executive Brian Armstrong said, “our employee costs are too high to effectively manage this uncertain market.”
Shares of Coinbase have plunged more than 71% this year, according to FactSet data.
Compass Mining
On July 7, Compass Mining said via a blog post that 15% of its workforce would get laid off. The company also said announced that compensation for executives would be reduced.
According to the bitcoin mining company, their business “grew too quickly” but had to cut spending now due to uncertain market conditions.
OpenSea
On July 14, nonfungible tokens (NFT) marketplace OpenSea announced that it is cutting a fifth of its staff. It cited the crash in cryptocurrency prices as the reason behind employee layoffs. According to OpenSea, it now has 230 employees, suggesting about 57 people were laid off.
Blockchain.com
On July 21, cryptocurrency exchange Blockchain.com announced that it is laying off one-quarter of its workforce. Collapsed crypto hedge-fund manager Three Arrows Capital had taken credits of more than $300 million from this trading platform.
After millions of new retail traders entered the crypto market in 2021, 2022 started with a downturn, auguring fears of a bear market. With concurrent inflation fears and rising interest rates, trading activity has slowed from previous record levels, as traders err on the side of caution with their investment strategies.
Then, in May, the algorithmic stablecoin Terra de-pegged from the US dollar, and collapsed, along with its linked token LUNA. As a result, many people had their investments wiped out in the space of a few hours, while a widespread market panic took hold.
The events surrounding the Terra collapse highlight why trading platforms need to provide clarity and education for their users. With tighter regulations looming, demonstrating responsibility and a commitment to consumer protection is vital if trading platforms are to thrive.
Spotting red flags
Since Terra’s dramatic downfall, a number of reports have surfaced, which had previously pointed to some of the alleged flaws in the stablecoin’s algorithmic model, as well as the unsustainable yield of almost 20% promised through Terra’s Anchor protocol. Unlike other collateralised stablecoins, Terra’s model depended entirely on algorithms, which shifted most of its volatility onto the LUNA token while keeping Terra, or UST pegged to the US dollar.
This incentive-based mechanism, alongside the impressive staking returns offered by its associated Anchor protocol, was undoubtedly an innovative and attractive proposition for many investors. Nonetheless, the algorithmic model was risky and can, as was the case in May, be destabilised by a large run on the LUNA token, which deprived the system of liquidity and caused UST to lose its peg.
The Terra crash demonstrated the inherent risks in flawed fundamentals all too well. The people who suffered the most were regular retail investors who assumed the stablecoin to be a reliable store of value. While trading platforms cannot offer investment recommendations, a greater emphasis on clarity and transparency may have led to retail investors treading more carefully when storing their savings in certain digital assets.
If, for example, online exchanges can provide their users with clear explanations of how stablecoins work and differ, investors can confidently make decisions based on facts rather than taking word-of-mouth recommendations at face value.
Regulation moves closer
As part of wider calls for regulation of the crypto market, stablecoins have been on the radar of legislators since the first iterations were launched over five years ago. The collapse of UST accelerated this process considerably.
This urgency to protect consumers through regulatory frameworks is gaining traction across the world, with the UK government proposing to amend existing rules to safeguard financial stability. This comes not long after the UK treasury’s commitment to making Britain a “crypto hub” and shows that cryptocurrencies have entered the financial mainstream to a certain extent.
Regulation may not always be supportive, however. Calls to bring stablecoins under regulation can easily morph into allowing tokens to be issued solely by regulated banks – a move which could essentially remove the decentralised element of stablecoins and turn them into something akin to central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
Once again, trading platforms have a role to play. By informing traders about high-risk investments in advance, they can align themselves with the regulators who are seeking to protect consumers without stifling innovation. By proactively demonstrating transparency and accountability, online exchanges might avoid such heavy scrutiny by lawmakers.
Empowering retail traders
Ultimately, providing as much information as possible to investors and traders means empowering them to take informed decisions. This way, consumers can exercise financial freedom confidently and benefit from the unprecedented access to assets granted by blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies.
How does this look in practice? Educational tools like tutorial libraries, safety mechanisms and effective news aggregators can transform online exchanges into transparent and accountable platforms which truly work for the retail trader.
The foundational power of retail trading is providing access to wealth which was previously restricted to insiders and institutions. This can free up capital and new opportunities to everyone, everywhere. Only by providing education can individuals truly be empowered to take part in the market without taking on inadvertent risk.
KuCoin has successfully secured over $10 million from Susquehanna International Group in a strategic investment.
KuCoin will collaborate with Susquehanna to incubate and build networks for crypto startups, according to CoinDesk. The crypto exchange is particularly focused on projects built on the KCC chain – the blockchain network backed by KuCoin.
KuCoin told CoinDesk that its funds will be used to upgrade its crypto exchange platform’s infrastructure and enrich its product lineup. Furthermore, it also plans to use the funds for global expansion initiatives and hire more employees. According to CoinDesk, the firm had more than 300 job openings as of Thursday.
“KuCoin has been through a few crypto cycles, and we are committed to building no matter what,” KuCoin CEO Johnny Lyu said. “The support of SIG will solidify our leading role as a centralized exchange and facilitate our ecosystem expansion in the decentralized Web 3.0 world.”
Lyu added that the funds will allow KuCoin to continue programs supporting crypto startups, such as research and development, incubation and mentorship.
“Part of the funds will also be used to support the development and improvement of the KCS and KCC ecosystems with a focus on social aspects, DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) infrastructure and decentralized communities,” Lyu added.
The move follows KuCoin’s $150 million pre-Series B funding round led by Jump Crypto in May at a valuation of $10 billion, CoinDesk reported.
Peter Brandt, one of the most vocal critics of Bitcoin (BTC), has taken a jab at the digital currency again, dwelling on the coin’s energy correlation with its value this time.
Talking throughTwitter, Brandt said Bitcoin does not provide any economic function, ironically highlighting that the most significant view of Bitcoin is when it is seen as enormous energy consumption.
The comment about Bitcoin in itself is a response to a July 19 tweet from Michael Saylor, the co-founder and CEO of MicroStrategy Incorporated, a firm that has accumulated over 140,000 Bitcoin units. In his characteristic manner, Saylor had rained his accolades on Bitcoin as “a digital commodity because it has no issuer and is secured by energy.”
In the criticizing comment, Peter Brandt noted that Bitcoin is “Secured by energy only in the sense that it is useless without an exorbitant use of energy — and then without providing economic function. It is a huge myth that somehow $BTC is anything but energy consumption.”
In what later turned out to be an education session on Twitter, Saylor took time to school Brandt on Bitcoin’s inherent ‘economic function’.
According to Saylor, “All commodities require energy. Since #bitcoin is a commodity, it can serve as global digital money. The economic function is to provide property rights to 8 billion people as well as a global settlement network that has already cleared $17 trillion dollars so far this year.”
He buttressed his points by Posting the chart below:
It is not uncommon to find critics using the energy utilization of Bitcoin and other Proof-of-Work digital assets to argue for an investor boycott or a ban. EU regulators surmounted such pressure and refused to ban PoW in the newly passed Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) bill.
